Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Amsterdam: Part 2

Well we got up, cleaned up, packed and headed for breakfast. Afterwards we relaxed in the lounge a bit before purchasing some museum and tram passes at a discounted rate from the hostel. The museum passes also let you bypass the waiting line which is great. Our first stop was the Rijkmuseum. This place had a collection of Dutch artifacts and paintings. The artifacts included old musket pistols and rifles, lots of ceramic decorative pieces, etc. Then there were the paintings. The coolest was seeing Rembrandt's work. They were truly masterpieces. After that we headed back tour hostel to relax for about an hour until we could check in to our new hostel. We then set out in search of it. Now when they say this place was brand new I didn't think this new. In fact they are still working on the place. Guys are running around with paint and tools. Alot of chairs and towels are stacked downstairs and there's furniture in the hall ways. The bright side is the beds are new and were made when we got here. There's an in-room bath and shower that is really nice and fancy-like just like one would find in a nice hotel.

So apparently it seems that our hostel just opened today. Crazy and it seems they move fast for setting up. Our roommates are a 54 year old guy who is staying one night to meet up with a friend from Paris and then they will travel elsewhere to see some family. The other guy is from Minnesota (small world I know) who happened to be in line behind us when checking in and saw my driver's license. He is a frequent traveler here before heads to Northern Iraq to visit family. So after some small talk in our brand new room we headed out to the Vondelpark where it is definitely something I have never seen except for maybe at a concert of festival but tons of people just come to the park and chill. Its a crazy sight. Afterwards we grabbed some food and then headed for the Red Light District. Yeah this place is something else. Girls simply stand in the window very scantily dressed and get customers. The coffee shops sale marijuana just as a everything else. We then headed back and after a bit of roaming around to call it a day.

1 comment:

sounds like a fun trip so far!! too funny, i was JUST reading about the red light district in Amsterdam in my book! talked about the girls standing in doors/windows. crazy! :) hope you are having a blast!!